In raising cattle, whether for beef, breeding or dairy purposes, there is a reoccurring need to treat the cattle with various drugs, medicine, vitamins and even to artificially inseminate cows. Any one of these treatments requires the cattle to be positioned so the treatment can be performed. As can easily be understood, the massive weight of the animal, combined with the fact the animal might be very upset about having some of these treatments performed, can make these treatments difficult, if not dangerous to both the cattle and the operator.
In the past, one approach to facilitating the treatment of cattle is to guide them into a long narrow chute, one by one, so that the animals are confined within the chute and can be treated individually as they move along the chute. One common device to perform this action is a standard hydraulic squeeze chute. However, these prior techniques are labor intensive and can often result in injury to the animals as they thrash around within the chute. Thus, a need exists for an improved technology to treat cattle which minimizes the labor necessary and prevents harm, or even distress to the animal to the degree possible.